Respect...just A Little Lake Worth Emerges With New Attitude.

September 12, 1990|By DAVID O`BRIEN, Staff Writer

On the very first play of this Palm Beach County football season, Lake Worth`s Jonathan King took a pitch from his quarterback and sprinted 23 yards against what was supposed to be the best defense around.

Talk about setting a tone.

Before it was through, King had gained 150 yards on 23 carries, Mike Callahan had thrown three touchdown passes, and Lake Worth had humbled No. 1-ranked Palm Beach Lakes 20-7 Thursday.

It was the only game in the county that night, so it was the subject of much discussion Friday as most teams prepared for their openers.

Some who didn`t see it couldn`t believe it, but those who did knew: Palm Beach Lakes got outplayed in virtually every aspect of the game.

Or, as King put it, ``It wasn`t a fluke. We`re capable of having a winning season. We worked hard over the summer for this.``

King, a junior, has worked especially hard, coming back from a injury last season to regain his starting spot in the backfield.

It happened in the fifth game, a 29-15 victory over Port St. Lucie, and the details are still a bit sketchy. King, like many other Trojans, played both offense and defense last year, and thinks he suffered the injury to his finger from his safety position.

``We think he was tackling somebody and got it caught in a jersey,`` Lake Worth coach Matt Dillon said. ``He wasn`t exactly sure, but that`s what we were able to piece together.``

King played the entire game, but didn`t have any feeling in the tip of the finger by the end of the game.

X-Rays were taken that night, and the pictures were not pretty. There was a torn tendon and separated bone. His season was over and the injury would require surgery and five months of rehabilitation.

``The tendon in the top of his finger just unraveled, all the way down into his hand,`` Dillon said. ``That`s the way our trainer explained it to me.``

King, whose three interceptions held up as the team`s best for the season, completed his lengthy rehab and received medical clearance in time to participate in spring practice.

But it was during an offseason conditioning program when he really showed he had recovered.

``We have an agility program that we got from the University of Michigan,`` Dillon said, ``and he was by far the best in those drills. You could just watch and tell, there was no question who was the best athlete on our team.``

King`s athletic ability, in fact, was part of the reason Dillon chose to incorporate an I-formation into what had been strictly a wishbone offense.

``We thought we`d be able to get him the ball more in the I, and we just don`t have a lot of other quality backs,`` he said. ``Plus, we`ve got some pretty decent receivers this year.``

In Callahan, Lake Worth also has a poised quarterback who can take full advantage of those receivers, including Leotis Johnson, Lawrence Lucee, Jermaine McClendon and bruising tight end Pat Magennis.

When Callahan and King worked a trick slip-option play to perfection several times, forcing Lakes to bring more men to the line, and Callahan responded by dissecting what was the finest secondary in the county a year ago.

Still, it was the ground game that set up most of the scoring. In a game that some figured would turn into a track meet for Lakes` 1,300-yard returning backfield trio, it was King who stole the show.

King gave all the credit to his big linemen for opening holes all night. But once he got through them he was on his own, and the Rams simply could not stop the 5-9, 155-pounder.

``I think he`s quicker than he is fast,`` Dillon said, estimating King`s 40- yard dash time at 4.7 seconds. ``Quickness is what he`s got, and great lateral movement.``

King displayed impressive cut-back skills while rolling up 103 first-half yards on 11 carries. In addition to his first-play dash, he added runs of 22 and 23 yards.

``I was just pumped up from what was said in the papers and knowing what we had to do,`` he said. ``We had to prove it to everybody and mainly to ourselves. All we want is respect.``